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Gotta Camping Story? Tell Your Tale!

OK, I posted this over on my Tallahassee blog, but I'm reposting here...

I received info on this today and it's up my ally. Even though I'm going to enter (and win; I have a great story!), I'm still sharing this with my outdoor writing buddies. But hurry, submissions are due Aug. 31, 2007. Good luck!

Calling campers, wannabe campers, and writers with a sense of humor. Have a run-in with a raccoon? Forget your camp stove at home? Wake up to find your tent pitched in the middle of a trail and piss off a lot of hikers . . . wait, that happened to me.

To celebrate the publication of Let’s Get Primitive, Ten Speed Press is running a 500-word essay contest. Tell us your worst camping trauma. Share your backcountry disaster. Spill the beans and you could win a nifty 2-person Coleman tent, an unbreakable camp cocktail set (complete with shaker), and a copy of Let's Get Primitive: The Urban Girl’s Guide to Camping!

Essays will be judged on originality, humor, writing style, and degree of calamity by the Queen of Camping Mishap, me! (That would be Heather Menicucci)

No purchase (or chest-beating) is necessary, just email your very best camping disaster story of 500 words or less to camping@tenspeed.com between July 1 and August 31, 2007.

Like the idea of the contest. I'm wondering, can I post one about friends I hiked with on the AT? Great story about a trail shelter, a skunk sniffing a person's face, and the after effects of a sudden wakeup!

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